Give the gift of life this Christmas with Southport donor drive

“MY donor saved my life – and someone out there can save Sam Wright too.”

Student Tom Ellis, 18, seems like your average teenager – after celebrating A-level success in summer, he is planning a gap year trip to India before heading off to medical school in London.

But aged 12, he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia where his only hope of survival was for a bone marrow donor to step forward.

On the eve of a vital donor drive at the Visiter’s offices in aid of six-year-old Sam Wright – held this afternoon (Friday, December 18) – Tom spoke of how a mystery man saved his life.

He said: “Doctors told me I had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and after about eight months they discovered that I had the Philadelphia chromosome which complicated everything. That was when they told me that a bone marrow transplant was my only option.

“It took two or three months to find a donor and, whilst I now know that it can take a long time and that some people don’t even find donors, I guess I was so young that I was pretty oblivious to all that at the time.

“It was a hellish time but I was incredibly lucky – my bone marrow transplant was successful and six years on I’m still in the clear. I wrote to my donor about a year after my transplant to say thank you and letting him know that I was OK.

“It’s a big thing that he did and I would encourage everyone to join the bone marrow register – because it, quite simply, saves lives.

“If you can go and support Sam Wright and those thousands of others in need of a transplant, then you should – it could be the most important thing you ever do.”

The Visiter’s donor registration session is open to for those aged 18-40 and in reasonably good health.

A team will be on hand from 2.30pm to 6.30pm at our Tulketh Street offices to help you sign up. By giving just one small phial of saliva you will be listed on a database of people willing to donate marrow to someone like Sam – for whom a transplant may be the last chance of life.